breeze123

What a handsome little boy!!

This trip does sound dreadful. I've done a land based tour of China and experienced a lot of the same things. Amazing country and fascinating culture but rude people.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You boarded just as we disembarked!

I agree about the mumbling of the Captain, and the long faces of the crew. I felt like it was more of indifference.

Tampa was a breeze and I agree, that self-assist line was ridiculous. We paid a porter and zipped out the other side.

The carry on luggage is my biggest pet peeve. I do understand why people do it, but over stuffing your bag to where it won't fit in the overhead but trying to jam it in there anyway....

We just had our Platinum pins show up on our stateroom on this last cruise. It was a surprise! Wasn't expecting them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is iMessage an iPhone app? Is there one available for other cell phones? I am going to look into if RCCL has the social media wifi like Carnival now has. It was fairly cheap and we could use it to send Facebook messages to each other for communications. Thanks!

It's the messaging via wifi option on iPhones. You can text for free from iPhone to iPhone while on wifi. I believe there is WhatsApp, Kik, and Tango which will work on other OS.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Please don't misunderstand this, but how do you know she followed the rules on where she could go and what she could do?

 

Doubtless you trust her and she has I hope earned that trust, but do you realy know what she dd and where she went when she wasn't with you.

I checked in via text and also did random spot checks. This isn't new for us. She has earned our trust by proving her responsibility both at home and on vacation. She knows the consequences of lying and breaking our trust. She obviously doesn't have free reign of her life as an 11 year old but she is responsible enough to handle some freedom.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Suites have their own lines at check in. Once you get your sea pass card, you just filter in with the other guests as you board. I believe if you get to the port very early, you can have priority boarding which would lighten the crowds a bit. We usually arrive around noon and haven't had an issue with excessive crowds at all.

I can't speak for the dining room on this ship but as a Suite guest, you can order from the dining room menu and have it delivered to your room. This may be a good option if you don't find a comfortable space in the MDR. My husband is also "large framed" and we haven't had issues with him being comfortable anywhere on any of the ships we've been on.

We paid for the wifi on the ship and used our iphones to message (text) each other during the cruise. It was helpful in tracking each other down and planning activities. With the wifi my husband was able to make a few business calls via Skype that worked exceptionally well.

I believe if you use the ships cellular service, while at sea, you will be charged that rate which is much higher than connecting while on land.

Whether or not you need this is up to you. My husband needed the wifi for work. We used it our benefit to keep in contact with one another. You can certainly get by without it, but it was convenient to have. You'll have to decide if the cost is of benefit to you. Our package had 4 devices for unlimited wifi for 5 days for $161 with our C&A discount.

In general, it depends on the child. I would set some ground rules and let them try it out and see if they can abide by them. If so, then you can keep it the same or expand it. If not, then they lose the privileges.

My 11 year old was just given more freedom on our last cruise. She did have her iPod and we paid for wifi so we could contact her at any time. She followed the rules on where she could go and what she could do so we had no problems.

You won't be charged for the towel....I'm amazed that anyone is worried about losing their towels! You won't! You take 3 ashore...and you pick them up and bring them back....very easy..anyone can do it!!

 

You aren't charged for checking them out, but you can be charged $25 if you do check it out and don't check it back in.

One more question

Will they let you take a cocktail to your cabin from the Diamond /suite lounge

If you get your drink in a bar can you take it to dinner.

 

One cruise we were on the. Concierge let us. Nice to have while getting ready or sail away on our balcony

Our last cruise we could take from concierge lounge but Diamond lounge wouldn't let us leave with ou r glass of wine l

Hopefully someone was on Freedom recently and can answer regarding taking drinks from the lounge. I think this will depend on who is running the lounge at the time.

I've never had a problem taking my bar drink into the dining room.

There are quite a few threads around that have the pricing for wifi. We just had unlimited wifi for 4 devices on a 5 day cruise for $161 with our C&A discount. I believe the 2 devices was around $100-$120.

They tell you the night before (notice in your room) what time to you can start departing for self assist. For us it was 8:10am. They start calling the numbered passengers about 10 minutes later and those go in 10 minute increments.

The elevators were definitely crowded as a lot of people are trying to depart with either their own luggage or lots of carry on luggage.

Just off Brilliance last week. They showed Enchanted, Get On Up, and another movie about football (I can't remember the title!).

Brilliance does have a Solarium with a roof. The decor is somewhat dated, but the pool and hot tub are great and probably is exactly what you're looking for. If you do a search in some of the reviews people have posted pictures. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/royal-caribbean/brilliance

Agree. For this cruise, it was never crowded (in my opinion) and we could always find chairs. This could be different on a cruise going north though. :)

Enjoyed your review.

 

Did you do any excursions?

Yes, we did the wreck and reef snorkel in Grand Cayman and the Dolphin Push, Pull and Swim in Cozumel. Really enjoyed both and had positive experiences. Sun was very hot in both locations so definitely wear your sunscreen. My daughter got a nice sunburn in Grand Cayman!

Yes, if the BOGO promotion is in effect, you will get that pricing in addition to the on-board credit. One thing to ask though is the on-board credit may have to be taken on the current cruise. Not sure if you can have it attached to the future cruise like it used to be. This was a change that took effect a few weeks ago. ASK first to see what your best options are.

We were given a choice last week to use on current cruise or apply to the cruise we were booking. Not sure if this is a standard practice so it's worth asking.

We just did this last week while on board and did get the BOGO and the OBC. The rep running the desk was knowledgeable and helpful. Made the process very easy.

There is no smoking in the pub and there was no overflow from the casino-I would have noticed for sure. The main theatre is really close and there is a bank of elevators there too

Absolutely agree. Never noticed overflow at that end.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree...about 2 hours. And you'll know as everyone runs for the railing and people start to cheer. :) It's pretty impressive!

While we weren't on Freedom, our ship cleared customs and self assist passengers were allowed to disembark starting at 8:10am.

I'm so glad you liked Brilliance! DH and I were on her sister ship, Jewel, in January 2014 and had a great time. DH is not much into cruises but he had such a good time that he finally agreed to a 12-night Norway & Iceland cruise this summer on Brilliance. So I'm really glad to hear that Brilliance is as nice as Jewel was.

 

Thanks!

That sounds wonderful! I'm sure it will be a fantastic cruise!

Thank you for your review!!

 

We tried to sail her on Feb 23rd but it was cancelled due to fog, so now will be sailing her for the first time on the 11th and cannot wait!

 

I'm glad you are getting another chance very soon! I watched that whole fog situation very closely. We even moved our return flight to later in the afternoon just in case. Of course we ended up sitting at the airport for 6 hours, but that was fine.

I really felt like this cruise had a lot of activities that we WANTED to participate in. And a lot of family things too which we really enjoyed. I really wanted to do the scavenger hunt, but my daughter opted for the pool instead (i should have just done it on my own!).

People really got dancing to all the music in the Centrum. Great place to enjoy yourself.

We didn't get back there much as we somehow got stuck in the casino every time we tried to walk through. ;)

We sadly had to get off the Brilliance on Saturday morning to return home. :( This was one of our favorite cruises so far. I thought I would share some of my thoughts and observations since this is not a ship that is reviewed often.

Embarkation was fairly easy. We had to wait in a bit of a security line just to get into the building (set sail pass/passport check). Then we did the health survey and hopped in line for check in. That took all of 5 minutes. Security took a bit longer since my husband has a metal hip and it caused some issues. Once on board we sat next to Cafe Lattitudes which was quiet and relaxing. Rooms were ready by 1pm.

The ship itself is in great condition. The carpets, upholstery, linens, etc. all looked like they were still brand new. Everything was very clean and well maintained. A fellow passenger in the elevator on departure day was complaining that the men's restroom outside the Windjammer was gross, but I do think that was in part due to the number of people cycling through there while we were waiting for our rooms. We never encountered this issue in the public restrooms during the rest of the cruise.

The food was as to be expected. Nothing terrible, but nothing to write home about. We know this so we were not disappointed. My husband had the lasagna one night and said it was fantastic. I was addicted to the fries at the Windjammer and my daughter couldn't get enough of the chocolate chip cookies.

We were in a GS so we ordered in from the dining room on most nights. We are lazy diners and do not like to get dressed for dinner on vacation so we enjoyed this suite perk quite a bit. We did notice that the WJ was serving almost all the same items as the dining room menu in the evenings so really, it was a wash for us.

The talent of the entertainers on board was incredible. I usually don't say that about cruise entertainment, but wow! I was very impressed. The Broadway style show in the theater had me wondering why these people were not actually starring on Broadway. They were THAT good. Very impressive. We enjoyed the groups playing in the Centrum as well and often spent time just sitting, listening, and watching people dance.

For all the speculation on cutbacks in crew, this ship seemed to have an EXCESS of crew roaming around at all time. There were constantly officers walking around the ship looking as if they were just observing. There even seemed to be some cleaning crew that were looking like they were trying to be busy (one standing in front of a sign that says "Caution: Wire on stairs" as the other crew member was vacuuming). We also noticed a lot of crew in uniform eating at the Windjammer throughout the day. I thought this was no no? In addition, in the evenings, we would see crew in street clothes, with their badge on, just wandering around the ship. One was even a couple holding hands. We had no problem with any of this, but I thought it was odd since I always thought crew had to stay in their own quarters when not on duty.

We had one crew member who really WOW'd us. Most of the rest of the crew were fine. Some were indifferent, but no one else really went above and beyond. We were not bothered by this, but it's just an observation.

This was a Spring Break cruise and while we did have a large group of college students, they mainly kept to the Sky Bar and we really didn't run into them anywhere else. The pools and hot tubs had plenty of room.

The bar service was slow, but we just figured out where we could get served more quickly and walked to that bar rather than wait. Probably a wash on that too, but it made me think I was getting a drink more quickly. :) A few times at Vintages there would be no one there to serve and people would be standing around waiting for someone to show up. My daughter was disappointed by the lack of Freestyle Coke machines, but I do think she got a kick out of bellying up to the bar to get her drink. LOL

Our CD was Clo, and personally, I didn't enjoy her. We only saw her twice during the whole cruise (once during the Broadway show and once just walking through the Centrum on her way somewhere). The other CD staff seemed to be at every event. To the point that I couldn't believe I just left one at Bingo and here she was showing up at the dance party.

We stopped at Grand Cayman and Cozumel and both had 4 ships in port total. Even with that, we never felt like there were that many people roaming around. Perhaps when you first get on the pier, but after that, it was fine. The towel pickup for port was a bit of a nightmare. Compass said get them at the exit. When we get down there to the front of the line and then ask, they say you have to go upstairs, to the pool, to get them. Huh? So I ran back to the pool only to have that person argue with me that I can't take them for port. I told her the guy told me I had to get them here and she relented. There was someone waiting when we returned to the ship to take the towels back and scan our card (which was never scanned on exit), but I just returned them to the pool where I got them from. It's possible I missed the information somewhere, but I would have thought the crew at the exit would know better how to direct me.

My daughter took a stab at AO again on this trip and LOVED IT (she hated it on the Enchantment). I literally had to drag her back to the room at night. I do think it's more of the amount and mix of kids vs. what is actually going on in there. Either way, she had a blast.

Disembarkation was a breeze. We were in a GS and we are Platinum so we took the Platinum lounge as it was closer to the exit and we wouldn't have to fight for the elevators. A crew member escorted us straight to the front of the line which was unexpected and awesome! Then when we got to baggage claim, we tipped a porter to help us which allowed up a fast track lane through customs. Definitely worth the money!

Again, a fabulous cruise with many great memories. I would sail this ship again in a heartbeat.

Happy to answer any questions!

We just got off the Brilliance in a GS. It was lovely! DH said he was never going back to the balcony rooms. :)

We kept INTENDING on going to the CL but never did make it up there. We were having too much fun elsewhere on the ship. It was a wonderful cruise and I know you'll enjoy it.